Dave Bagler

I am a Maple Leafs fan and I support the Green party which would indicate I'm probably not a competitive person.  But I am, which is why perhaps my favorite feature of GRIMES (theGPC's great canvassing and GOTV management tool) is the Top Callers list.

This list highlights the phone canvassers who have called the most voters.  It's great, it makes for some friendly competition and turns phone canvassing into something of a game. It's fun to chase the top callers, moving out of the pack of people who have canvassed for a couple hours.

Not only is great to move up the list but since the list is updated in real time you can watch people jockey for position.  Last night for example I was trying to move from 5th to 3rd.  I thought I had done it but when I checked I noticed that the 3rd place caller was canvassing too.  It was a small battle as we both called voters switching from 4th to 3rd and back for more than an hour.

In the end I was happy to move in to a comfortable 3rd.  With that said I thought after Monday night I was comfortably in 4th but when I started canvassing last night I had been bumped down to 5th.

Maybe I'm weird but I think it's great!  It's also cool to see how many canvassers are calling in the evening.  The bar for making the top caller list keeps climbing as canvassers are making new calls and new callers join daily.

I spent about 3 hours canvassing last night and was able to make 134 calls which placed my poll on the top poll list (another favorite feature).  I was going to stop after 2 hours but I kept going, I'm closing in on 2nd.

I know to many of you the thought of spending your evening calling people on behalf of the Green Party sounds about as fun mild stomach pain but it's not.  The top caller list makes it rather enjoyable and when you see how many voters you have identified it is incredibly satisfying.

Please if you have any time to give, sign up to canvass SGI.  If you are under 30 make sure you also get entered in the Young Greens canvassing contest.  Hopefully I'll see you soon on the top callers list!